Car seats and rear facing

PeachsMama · May 2014

I know the law is 1 and 22lbs.

And I've been hearing that the new recommendation is to RF until 4 years old.

I had hoped to RF until 2 at least, but now I may consider RF longer than that. But I'm already being asked when I'll turn Matthew and he's only 6 months!

My cousin turned her son at 9 months and refused to turn him back until we showed her the law. But he's four now and already in a high back booster (and I had to BEG them to at least use the high back so it would position the belt right on his shoulder..

What is your plan? Have you thought about it? 2nd time moms, what did you do with your older children?

[Deleted User] · May 2014

DD turned front facing just after her 2nd bday. She's just over 3 now and in the graco Nautilus.

We will wait til 2 yrs to turn this lo as well. I don't know how kids still fit rf at 4???

PeachsMama · May 2014

Mommyxtwo1113 said:

DD turned front facing just after her 2nd bday. She's just over 3 now and in the graco Nautilus. We will wait til 2 yrs to turn this lo as well. I don't know how kids still fit rf at 4???

Seems crazy to me too! But I'm friends with that Car seats for the littles on facebook and they've posted pictures of kids RF that long!

[Deleted User] · May 2014

mapayne626 said:

Mommyxtwo1113 said:

DD turned front facing just after her 2nd bday. She's just over 3 now and in the graco Nautilus.

We will wait til 2 yrs to turn this lo as well. I don't know how kids still fit rf at 4???

Seems crazy to me too! But I'm friends with that Car seats for the littles on facebook and they've posted pictures of kids RF that long!

Wouldn't they be able to push against the back seat? Seems like that would be unsafe too...

Kim22 · May 2014

I think the size of the kid matters more than the age. Recommendations have also changed so quickly in the 7 years since I had my first. DS1 was forward facing at 1 and in a booster with a seatbelt at 3. DD will be 4 next month and just moved into a high back booster with a 5 point harness. She is tiny so I didn't want to move her but my convertible seat expired. I have not purchased a convertible seat for LO yet because I can't decide what to get.
It's like a whole new world for this old mom. The seats now look equipped to launch your baby to the moon compared to what I'm used to.

I was just thinking the other day how the day I got my license I started driving the girls I babysat who were 3 and 5 everywhere. We often picked up my boyfriend and his brother and sister who were 5 and 7. I never had car seats and often 2 kids shared 1 seatbelt. My parents, his, and the parents of the girls I watched all knew and no one batted an eye. Now new drivers can only have 1 passenger in my state, not 4 little kids without car seats! Yup I feel old.

DebateThis · May 2014

Mommyxtwo1113 said:

Mommyxtwo1113 said:

DD turned front facing just after her 2nd bday. She's just over 3 now and in the graco Nautilus. We will wait til 2 yrs to turn this lo as well. I don't know how kids still fit rf at 4???

Seems crazy to me too! But I'm friends with that Car seats for the littles on facebook and they've posted pictures of kids RF that long!
Wouldn't they be able to push against the back seat? Seems like that would be unsafe too...

Yes, but broken legs are much easier to fix than broken necks.

[Deleted User] · May 2014

DebateThis said:

Mommyxtwo1113 said:

mapayne626 said:

Mommyxtwo1113 said:

DD turned front facing just after her 2nd bday. She's just over 3 now and in the graco Nautilus.

We will wait til 2 yrs to turn this lo as well. I don't know how kids still fit rf at 4???

Seems crazy to me too! But I'm friends with that Car seats for the littles on facebook and they've posted pictures of kids RF that long!
Wouldn't they be able to push against the back seat? Seems like that would be unsafe too...

Yes, but broken legs are much easier to fix than broken necks.

Agreed. Just seems like there should be an option that protects neck and legs.

3Dewdrops · May 2014

LO will rear face til he is too big/long to in his seat. I don't know when I turned DD1 around but she was able to use the 5 pt harness in the Britax Frontier until she was 8. DD2 rf until a little after her 3rd bday when she hit the weight limit. I think they have upped the rear facing limit on a lot of seats now. Hers was 35 lbs. (a marathon manufactured in '08) She definitely wasn't uncomfortable sitting rearfacing.

Watching youtube vids of kids who were switched to boosters too early, at age 4ish, was enough to make me want to be as careful as possible with car safety.

PeachsMama · May 2014

DebateThis said:

Mommyxtwo1113 said:

Mommyxtwo1113 said:

DD turned front facing just after her 2nd bday. She's just over 3 now and in the graco Nautilus. We will wait til 2 yrs to turn this lo as well. I don't know how kids still fit rf at 4???

Seems crazy to me too! But I'm friends with that Car seats for the littles on facebook and they've posted pictures of kids RF that long!
Wouldn't they be able to push against the back seat? Seems like that would be unsafe too...

Yes, but broken legs are much easier to fix than broken necks.

And most can fold their legs and sit almost Indian style and be comfortable.

sarenu1 · May 2014

We did until she was 2. I'm currently searching for a smaller car seat to rear face at least until 2 for our son.

The Diono series are great for extended rear facing. They have a higher weight and height limit. I'm tried to get the new Pacifica, but it's on back order. I may order a different model.

Tmgs2013 · May 2014

I plan to rear face as long as possible. Question though (thread hijacking sorry) I know when we get our convertible seat we won't be able to fit it in the middle. Where is the next safest place? Behind passengers seat? I know we have LATCH on all 3 seats.

Dreamingmommy4 · May 2014

I will probably rear face until Lyla reaches the limits of the car seat. We have a convertible Graco MySize 70, that rear faces until 40lbs. (I don't remember the height limit), but if she keeps growing as fast as she is, we might have to turn her before she is 2. We shall see how this goes.

katmac17 · May 2014

We will stick with RF as long as we can. DS is 2.5 years old, but he is >98% for height, so he is as tall as many 3 and 4 year olds. We had to buy a car seat with an especially high height limit in the RF position, but he is very comfortable in it. We will keep him RF as long as we can as well (not sure if we can fit two convertible seats RF, so we may need to turn him around soon when DD moves into her convertible seat.

A bad accident that leads to a severe injury in a child is thankfully quite rare, so I totally understand people not being quite as neurotic as we have been. We just figure as long as he is fine with it we might as well keep him in the safest possible position.

inlove0509 · May 2014

We RF'ed DD1 until she was a few months older than 2. I had wanted to go longer but extra space was too tempting to fight any longer. We'll do the same with DD2, if not longer. I agree it's by far the safest thing to RF as loooong as possible!!

hollowway · May 2014

Law in my state is RF til 2. Plan on RF as close to 4 as possible. We have the Grace MyRide70, so we should be all set til she's read for a booster seat. I also plan to have her in a booster seat til she's 10-12 years old. I'm nuts about safety.

bglovesbabyk · May 2014

Ok I'm going to sound dumb here but oh well. What is it about front facing that is so much more dangerous? I'm obviously still going to follow the laws, but I'm trying to picture in my mind why it would cause more trauma with the seat facing foward. I guess I should have taken Physics after all. Dammit! !

DebateThis · May 2014

bglovesbabyk said:

Ok I'm going to sound dumb here but oh well. What is it about front facing that is so much more dangerous? I'm obviously still going to follow the laws, but I'm trying to picture in my mind why it would cause more trauma with the seat facing foward. I guess I should have taken Physics after all. Dammit! !

Edited: wrong link. Try this one: https://csftl.org/why-rear-facing-the-science-junkies-guide/

hollowway · May 2014

My SIL has her 8yo in a booster still. I don't think its unreasonable. If Mads is anything like her cousins, she'll need it.

DebateThis · May 2014

MaMaBear1323 said:

My SIL has her 8yo in a booster still. I don't think its unreasonable. If Mads is anything like her cousins, she'll need it.

There's a BIG difference between 8 and 11-12. I was babysitting other kids at 12, there is no way I would've put up with a freaking booster seat.

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